Mother's Day
by insaneantics21
Summary: Santana and Brittany & Rachel and Quinn celebrate Mother's Day. *Puppy-verse #16*
1. Santana & Brittany

Preceded by:  
Puppy | My Girl(s) | Perfection | Decisions | Baby Love  
Baby Love 2 | Slushies: The Next Generation | Little Gold Stars  
Change | Baby Just Say Yes | (Not Quite) Nine Months  
Double Trouble | Bigger is Better | Miracles | The Beginning

* * *

**-May 2025-**

Santana and Brittany's first Mother's Day with Joshua was fairly exciting. Joshua was only eight months old, he didn't get the concept but it was still their first Mother's Day which was excitement enough. Joshua was delighted when he discovered the dozen yellow roses Santana had ordered for Brittany. The young boy managed to grab onto one of them and tore all the petals off. Brittany and Santana spent the rest of the day finding out how many petals a rose normally had and if it was dangerous for kids to eat them. They never did figure out whether or not he ingested any of them.

Their second Mother's Day was a little more eventful because Joshua could actually participate. It started the few days before when Santana had Joshua for her Thursday off. After the Latina got over her morning sickness and Brittany went to the studio, Santana set her son up at the kitchen table and covered the entire thing in a huge sheet of white paper. She left him in nothing but his diaper for easy clean-up afterward because even though the bottle says "washable" she had discovered that no paint is stainless. She squirted out little puddles of several different colors of finger paint onto the paper and let him have at it.

Joshua grinned and immediately went to work. The first thing he did was smack his hand down into the puddle of green paint and Santana was grateful that she was wearing an old Northwestern sweatshirt and matching sweatpants instead of something expensive. While Joshua stood on the kitchen chair spread around the colors, Santana went to work cleaning the green paint off the walls and out of her hair. When she turned back from the kitchen sink the boy was nowhere to be found.

"_Ay dios mio_," the Latina mumbled. "_¡Mi'jo, venga a mí, ahora!_"

Santana heard a giggle from Joshua's bedroom and she groaned. She hurried down the hall and found him just as she had expected to, hands on the pale blue wall. The blonde boy looked up and grinned at her, Santana couldn't help but let her heart melt a little.

"Oh, _mi'jo…¿te amo, sabes que?_ Paint stays on the paper, though, _¿comprendes?_" Santana picked up her son and he immediately grabbed handfuls of her sweatshirt. She padded back down the hallway to get him set up in his chair again. She groaned at the sight she was met with.

Duck had managed to jump up on Joshua's vacated kitchen chair and her front paws were in two thick puddles of paint.

"Duck!"

The dog perked up and hopped off the chair. Santana shrieked as Duck ran through the apartment leaving behind a trail of colorful pawprints. The Latina shrieked again when Duck darted into her bedroom, she followed the dog and growled at her when Duck hopped up on the bed and curled up right in the middle.

"This is not how today was supposed to go," she sighed.

Santana let Duck stay in the bed while Joshua finished painting because there was really nothing else she could do. By the time Joshua announced he was all done he was covered head to toe in various colors. Santana took pictures before she got him into the bath. It took three washes to get the blue out of his hair and she felt like she was going to scrub him raw to get the rest of it off of him. She put him down in his room with a few toys while she scrubbed the wall to get the handprints off. She almost stripped away the layer of pale blue paint by the time she was finished but at least the majority of the finger paint was gone. Getting it out of her bedspread and the carpet would be more difficult.

While Joshua napped, Santana got Duck in the bath and figured she might as well have taken one herself because Duck _hated_ baths and she took every opportunity to shake. Santana swore that the dog was part sponge because for a short-haired whatever she was (they still weren't sure and neither was the vet), she could hold water like no other.

Santana attempted to scrub the paint out of the bedspread and settled for just changing it and the sheets. She'd tell Brittany that Duck got them wet after her bath. She scrubbed the pawprints out of the carpet the best she could, the purple paint was a nightmare. Finally, she collapsed on the couch, Duck jumped up and put her head in Santana's lap.

"You're a pain in my ass," Santana mumbled.

Duck licked her hand and whimpered. The Latina obliged to the dog's request and scratched behind her ears until Joshua woke up.

...............

Brittany was ecstatic the Friday before Mother's Day. She practically shoved Santana out the door and then started setting up for her plans. She pulled the hand-printing kit she'd bought at a craft store out of the hall closet and read the instructions carefully. She called Quinn because recipes still confused her (but she could somehow cook dinner with no problem as long as there wasn't a cookbook nearby).

"Quinn, how much is a cup?"

"Do you have measuring cups, B?"

"I don't know. I don't measure."

"Go look in your cabinets and see if you see cups with numbers on them."

Brittany started opening the cabinet doors above the counter top. There were big bowls, little bowls with cartoons on them, sippy cups, big plates, little plates with trains on them, a wide array of spices, and finally a set of cups with numbers on them.

"I think I found them."

"Look for one that says one cup."

Brittany looked, there were two glass cups. One was really big and had "4 cups" on it, she moved that one away from her. The other was smaller and she grinned at the little red line that had "1 cup" next to it.

"Got it. How many do I use?"

"How many cups does it say to add, B?"

Brittany looked at the instructions again.

"Two."

"So use two of those."

"I only have one."

"Fill it, pour it in with the mix, fill it again and then pour it in again."

"Right. Thanks Q!"

"No problem, B."

Brittany wrote down Quinn's instructions on the sheet and waited excitedly for Joshua to wake up. After she fed him his breakfast she settled him in a chair at the kitchen table and followed the instructions carefully to mix up the quick-setting plaster. She poured it in to the circular shape mold and set it down in front of her son. When she put his hand in it the first thing he did was try to play in it.

"No, you have to hold still," Brittany cooed. "It's for Mamí!"

Brittany got him to stretch out his fingers and she pressed his hand into the plaster and kept it there until the mold hardened enough that he could take it out. Brittany grinned at the perfect handprint and set it up on top of the refrigerator to finish drying. She took Joshua to the living room to play with Duck and furrowed her eyebrows at the light purple spots in the light grey carpet.

"I didn't know the carpet was polka-dotted," she mumbled.

"Duck!" Joshua squealed.

Brittany furrowed her eyebrows again. Joshua grinned and chewed on one of his many rubber ducks.

Santana called during lunch to say she was going to come home a little early from work, Brittany panicked and checked on the handprint again to see if it was dry. She figured it was dry enough and so after lunch she stripped Joshua down to his diaper and set the mold in front of him. She squirted out little dots of paint that came with the kit onto the white plaster. The first thing Joshua did was smack the puddle of blue paint and grin. Brittany blinked and wiped the splattered blue paint off of her face.

Brittany scrubbed the blue paint off the wall but had to leave the job three times to catch Joshua who took off through the living room. She caught him heading to his bedroom and carried him back to the kitchen table to have him finish the project. When it was done and the wall cleaned, Brittany put him into a bath. She had to wash his hair twice to get out the red paint. She put him down for his nap and went back to the kitchen and cleaned up the mess. Duck was looking up at the kitchen table.

"No painting for you, Duck," Brittany said. "Santana would kill you if you got paint on the carpet."

Duck wagged her tail and followed Brittany around the kitchen while she cleaned up. She used a blow-dryer on the handprint to get the paint to dry and then wrapped it up and stored it in the hall closet. She shut the closet door just as Santana came in and greeted her with a kiss.

...............

Saturday was spent at Rachel and Quinn's for a barbeque, Joshua followed the twins around and Santana complained about her recent morning sickness. They had hamburgers and hotdogs, Brittany suggested a round of SingStar. Quinn growled, Allie and Rachel both dropped their heads.

"Do we even want to know?" Santana said, eyebrow arched.

"_I_ don't even know," Quinn said. "All I know is that it's unplayable and no one will tell me exactly why."

Santana's eyes darted to Rachel who was biting her lip and Allie who was suppressing giggles.

Each couple wished the other an early happy Mother's Day when Santana and Brittany left to go back to the city.

Sunday morning Santana didn't have morning sickness. She and Brittany made good use of their time before Joshua woke up.

"Happy Mother's Day, B," Santana said as she pressed a kiss to the blonde's sternum.

Brittany grinned and wiggled down to press a kiss low on Santana's stomach.

"Happy Mother's Day, S. Next year will be even better."

Santana grinned and put her hand over the spot where Brittany had pressed another kiss.

"Yeah, B, it will."

They heard Joshua start stirring through the baby monitor and Brittany quickly put her clothes back on and ran to get him. Santana slipped her sweats on and crawled back into bed, Brittany joined her a few minutes later with their son. He grinned and wiggled out of Brittany's arms and crawled to Santana. The boy snuggled in close to her chest, Brittany bounced a little.

"I'll cook breakfast!" the blonde said with a smile.

Santana dozed off with Duck snuggled against her back and Joshua against her front. She was woken by the bed shifting and Brittany holding a tray piled high with scrambled eggs and bacon with a small bowl of oatmeal and a sippy cup. The pair took turns helping Joshua get the oatmeal from bowl to mouth without spilling it all over the bed. Santana slipped little pieces of bacon to Duck.

Joshua was eager to get out of bed when they finished; Santana followed him followed by Duck with Brittany bringing up the rear to the living room. Brittany put the dishes in the sink and quickly went through the hall closet and grabbed the bag with Santana's gift in it. The Latina bit her lip and dashed to Joshua's bedroom and grabbed the rolled up paper out of his closet and returned to the living room. The pair dropped to the floor, Joshua crawled into Brittany's lap and the two women traded gifts.

"I told you not to get me anything," Santana said.

"It's not from me. And I told you not to get me anything, either."

"That's not my doing," Santana said, gesturing to the roll of paper.

Brittany untied the ribbon on the paper and rolled it out. She gasped and smiled bright as her eyes looked over the random lines and blotches and handprints. She furrowed her eyebrows and Santana knew exactly what she'd spotted.

"Duck kind of…helped. And we may have to pay the landlord to replace the carpet when we move…"

"I knew it wasn't polka-dotted when we moved in!"

"The purple was a nightmare to try and get out."

Brittany giggled and ran her fingertips over the painting. "It's beautiful," she sighed. She kissed the top of Joshua's head and he cooed. "Open yours!"

Santana pulled out the tissue paper on the top of the bag and then something heavy. She bit her lip when she pulled the disc of plaster with Joshua's handprint out of the bag.

"Do you like it?"

Santana nodded and choked back a few tears. She blamed the pregnancy hormones.

"It's wonderful, B. I'm going to get a stand for it and put it in my office!"

Brittany bounced a little. "Joshua painted it…and I had to wash the kitchen wall."

"He smacked the paint puddle?"

Brittany nodded. "Blue."

"Green. And several colors on his bedroom wall. Blue is hard to get out of his hair."

"So is red."

Santana giggled and wiped away the few rogue tears that had managed to escape and she traced her fingertips over the tiny handprint in plaster. Being a mom was definitely awesome and the morning sickness and hormones were going to be totally worth it when next year she would have not one but two reasons to celebrate.


	2. Rachel & Quinn

**Author's Note:** The first part of this isn't as fluffy and happy as the rest of it but I felt the need to put it in because it makes the second half a little more understandable. You'll see what I mean.

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**-May 2019-**

Quinn had been through nine Mother's Days. The first few years Rachel had done most of the work, of course. Allie was barely two months old for Quinn's first one and the then-teens weren't even together but Quinn got breakfast in bed complete with a single stem pink rose. Rachel confided in her years later that each time she helped Allie it was as much from her as it was from the tiny blonde due to Rachel's lack of mother and always wanting to do something for the holiday.

When she started preschool, Allie started making gifts for both of her mothers and Quinn always picked up a card for Rachel. Rachel still made breakfast in bed for Quinn every year and there was always a single pink rose on the tray. The brunette insisted that she be the one to make sure Quinn's Mother's Days were perfect no matter how hard the blonde tried to give Rachel just one. Rachel would always smile and say, "Someday."

The Mother's Day after Rachel's miscarriage, Rachel brought Quinn breakfast in bed as she always had. Quinn didn't miss the sullen expression on the brunette's face and the blonde patted the space next to her and beckoned Rachel into bed. Rachel crawled in bed with her lover and pecked Quinn on the cheek and whispered, "Happy Mother's Day" but Quinn heard the sorrow. The blonde wrapped an arm around Rachel's shoulders and shared her pancakes, Allie came in shortly thereafter with two handmade cards and the three snuggled in bed for a few hours until Allie started getting restless.

Rachel was still quiet all through lunch and she excused herself after she helped Quinn with the dishes stating she was tired and could use a nap. The blonde followed her a few minutes behind knowing full well that Rachel was lying. Quinn sighed and her heart sank when she found Rachel in their bedroom looking down at the sonogram pictures that the brunette still kept in her sock drawer.

"Sweetie?" Quinn cautiously put a hand on Rachel's shoulder.

Rachel jumped a little and pulled the sonogram pictures close to her chest. She swallowed hard and stifled a sob, Quinn pulled her in and Rachel rested her head on the blonde's shoulder.

"I just thought…this time last year I thought we'd…I thought…"

"I know," Quinn whispered. "I love you, Rachel. Allie loves you, you know that. You know she loves you and thinks of you as her mother."

"I know." Rachel sniffled. "And you know think of her as my daughter and I love her as such but I just thought we would be celebrating another child today."

Quinn held Rachel close and sighed. It had been the same on the baby's due date and at Christmas and Quinn hoped that someday Rachel would get the Mother's Day she so desperately wanted.

**-May 2020-**  
Despite having a three week old Caesarean incision, Quinn was up early the morning of Mother's Day. She never actually went back to sleep after the twins last feeding, just waited for Rachel to fall asleep. The blonde kissed each of her twin daughter's foreheads and swept her fingertips over their thick, dark hair and repeated the process with her lover who was snoozing peacefully.

Quinn had enlisted the help of Allie the night before in getting everything ready so she wouldn't have much to do that morning. It only took a few minutes to get the stove heated and she made quick work of the pancakes and drizzled strawberry syrup over them, just as Rachel liked. She grabbed three pink roses out from the closet under the stairs and put the plate of pancakes on a tray along with a glass of orange juice and the roses. The blonde quietly made her way back upstairs and smiled when she entered the master bedroom.

Rachel was curled up on her side of the bed, just as she had been when Quinn left but she'd pulled Quinn's pillow to her chest and had it wrapped tightly in her arms. The blonde set the tray down on the chest at the foot of their bed and with a huge triumphant grin on her face she knelt down by Rachel's side of the bed. She pushed back the curtain of dark brown hair and kissed Rachel's neck, the brunette stirred and groaned a little.

"Happy Mother's Day, Mom," Quinn whispered.

Rachel grinned and rolled over to face her lover. "Hey Mama." Rachel reached up and pulled Quinn into a kiss. "Happy Mother's Day. If you give me a moment I'll get up and…"

Quinn cut Rachel off with another kiss. "Hold that thought," she whispered.

Rachel furrowed her eyebrows and Quinn quickly grabbed the tray from the foot of the bed. Rachel's eyes went wide and she sat bolt upright in bed and her eyes followed Quinn. The blonde placed the tray over Rachel's lap and the brunette covered her mouth with her hands at the sight of the three pink roses on her tray. The tears streamed down her cheeks and Quinn went around the bed and crawled in to settle herself next to the smaller woman. She kissed away Rachel's tears and the brunette sniffled a few times before she wiped away the rest of her tears and gave a signature Rachel Berry smile.

"I love you," Quinn whispered against Rachel's lips. "You've deserved this for ten years, Rachel. You were there when Allie was born and you've always been there. I know you're going to be just as fantastic a mother to our beautiful new babies as you have been to Allie."

That sent Rachel into a fresh round of tears and she pulled Quinn into another kiss, and yet another.

"I love you, too."

Quinn grinned and pulled away to grab the napkin and spread it over Rachel's lap. The brunette wiped away her tears again and licked her lips at the sight of the pancakes soaked in strawberry syrup. Quinn cut up and fed Rachel her first bite, the brunette moaned dramatically and Quinn shook her head and giggled. Quinn snuck a few bites of her own and of course there were kisses between bites and Quinn really hated that she had three more weeks to go until she was allowed "rigorous activity".

Rachel finished her breakfast and Quinn took the tray back downstairs. By the time she was back upstairs, Rachel had Isabelle in her arms and was walking the floor cooing at the infant. Allie and Dorothy followed close behind Quinn and hopped up on the bed. Dorothy curled up at the very foot of the bed and Allie dropped a flat box next to her and watched carefully as her mothers went through getting the girls changed. Quinn settled down in bed with Isabelle and covered with a light blanket to nurse and Rachel handed off Olivia to her big sister.

"I just did one thing for you," Allie said. "I would have done another but I ran out of time."

Rachel picked up the box and pulled out an 8 ½ x 11 photo in a wooden decorated frame. The picture was the first family picture taken after Quinn had come home from the hospital with the twins. Each woman had a baby in their arms and Allie was snuggled in between the two peering over at the newborn in Rachel's arms. The frame had five gold stars at the top, a big one in each corner and three smaller ones in between. There were swirls and patterns in several colors decorating the rest of the frame. The ten-year-old bounced a little and Rachel ran her fingertips over the entire frame.

"Allie," Rachel finally choked out, "it's beautiful."

The brunette leaned down and kissed the top of Allie's head and the blonde grinned ear to ear.

Rachel burped Isabelle while Quinn took Olivia from Allie and got the second baby nursed. Allie snuggled down in the bed and fell asleep quickly, Quinn watched Rachel pace at the foot of the bed with Isabelle on her shoulder. She saw the brunette's eyes dart to her sock drawer and her paces slowed a little. Quinn held her breath and waited.

Rachel looked a little more intensely at the drawer until Isabelle burped. Rachel's eyes lit up and she giggled, turning her attention back to the newborn on her shoulder.

"Goodness, baby girl!"

Isabelle grunted and Rachel grinned as she lifted the girl from her shoulder and cradled the baby in her arms. Her pace returned to normal and Quinn smiled a little as she watched Rachel coo to their daughter in her arms. Isabelle reached up with her tiny hand and Rachel let the girl grab onto her finger.

"You doing okay over there, Mom?" Quinn lifted Olivia up on to her shoulder and started rubbing her back.

Rachel looked up at Quinn with her signature smile. "Never better, babe."

There would of course be plenty more Mother's Days to come and each one was amazing but Quinn always noticed the sparkle in Rachel's eyes when they talked about their first Mother's Day with their complete family.


End file.
